How do you get a Coast Guard helicopter to land at your Tacoma school? Just ask nicely
As the clock ticked toward 1 p.m. Thursday, 500 excited students at Truman Middle School scanned the northern skies for a sign or sound.
“It’s right there,” said Mikael Fowlkes, aka Kobra — his Truman aviation club call sign.
“That’s a bird,” his friend corrected him.
Seconds later, the distinctive whoomp-whoomp of a helicopter could be heard behind treetops, and a chorus of cheers went up as a bright orange chopper appeared on the horizon.
Moments later, U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Zach Brown steered his Dolphin MH-65 helicopter over the screaming crowd, circled back and hovered over the school’s baseball field. Drivers along North Pearl Street slowed and gaped at the spectacle.
Soon, a rescue swimmer was being lowered from the helicopter onto the field. Looking up, the wide-eyed students stared in amazement. Looking down, so did the swimmer.
“It’s pretty surreal,” Coast Guard rescue swimmer Erickson Formiller said moments after he reached the turf, unhooked his harness and joined the crowd. “I didn’t expect that many people waving back. It was pretty amazing.”
Making the ask
Why did a Coast Guard rescue helicopter land on Truman’s field Thursday?
Because a sixth grader asked them to.
When Truman’s new aviation club formed in September, advisor and tech ed teacher Marty Splinter told his mostly sixth grade students they should come up with a main event of sorts for the club: a trip to an air museum or air show. Those ideas soon proved costly and time consuming.
Why not have aviation come to them, the group reasoned. Shutting down Pearl Street for an airplane to land wasn’t a practical idea, so the group turned to helicopters.
“Then we started going down the list, Boeing, Army ... Coast Guard,” Splinter said.
In November, club president and sixth grader Reid Gideon called the Coast Guard.
“I was extremely nervous because they are a branch of the military,” the 11-year-old said. Splinter was listening in.
“You hear this long silence and then the guy picked his jaw off the floor,” Splinter said. “He said, ‘Hang on a minute.’ So then he comes back after a minute. ‘You got a pencil? Write down this number.’”
More calls were made, emails exchanged, permissions granted, and last week the school learned the Dolphin and its crew would soon be visiting.
Public appearances
Crews from the Port Angeles air station flew 138 similar missions all over western Washington in 2023, Brown said. Most were to community events, not ball fields. When they do visit schools, it’s usually a high school.
“The scale and the age of the kids is really pretty awesome,” Brown said of Thursday’s event. “We don’t get to talk to younger kids very often.”
Students from Point Defiance and Downing elementary schools also attended the landing, which was followed by an assembly in the school’s auditorium. JROTC students from Foss and Lincoln high schools were also present.
Even for pilot Brown, the day was special.
“Trying to find schools, it’s kind of hard sometimes,” he said.
Truman was different.
“I looked over and saw 500 kids ... oh, I think that’s the spot,” he said.
In good weather, the Dolphin can reach Tacoma in 20-25 minutes from Port Angeles flying at 138 miles per hour over the Olympic Mountains, Brown said.
The elongated helicopter features prominently in Coast Guard rescue videos as it plucks shipwrecked mariners from choppy waters, home owners stranded from their flooded homes and trapped hikers from steep cliffs.
Gumption
The nine members of Truman’s aviation club were front and center for the arrival on Thursday. Club members wore their call signs — Red Bull, Baron, Eagle, Raven — on T-shirts.
Reid’s call sign is Maverick, a nod to the “Top Gun” movies and Tom Cruise.
As the helicopter was approaching Thursday, Reid said the experience of arranging its visit has been a confidence booster.
“It kind of made me realize that it’s not too hard to talk to important people,” he said.
This story was originally published February 16, 2024 at 9:54 AM.
